“In the Mood”—Glenn Miller (1939)

¡°In the Mood¡±¡ªGlenn Miller (1939)

Added to the National Recording Registry: 2004

Essay by Cary O¡¯Dell

Glenn Miller

Original release label

¡°Sun Valley Serenade¡±

Though Glenn Miller and His Orchestra¡¯s well-known, robust and swinging hit ¡°In the Mood¡±

was recorded in 1939 (and was written even earlier), it has since come to symbolize the 1940s,

World War II, and the entire Big Band Era. Its resounding success¡ªbecoming a hit twice, once

in 1940 and again in 1943¡ªand its frequent reprisal by other artists has solidified it as a timetraversing classic.

Covered innumerable times, ¡°In the Mood¡± has endured in two versions, its original instrumental

(the specific recording added to the Registry in 2004) and a version with lyrics. The music was

written (or written down) by Joe Garland, a Tin Pan Alley tunesmith who also composed ¡°Leap

Frog¡± for Les Brown and his band. The lyrics are by Andy Razaf who would also contribute the

words to ¡°Ain¡¯t Misbehavin¡¯¡± and ¡°Honeysuckle Rose.¡±

For as much as it was an original work, ¡°In the Mood¡± is also an amalgamation, a ¡°mash-up¡±

before the term was coined. It arrived at its creation via the mixture and integration of

three or four different riffs from various earlier works.

Its earliest elements can be found in ¡°Clarinet Getaway,¡± from 1925, recorded by Jimmy

O¡¯Bryant, an Arkansas bandleader. For his Paramount label instrumental, O¡¯Bryant was part of

a four-person ensemble, featuring a clarinet (played by O¡¯Bryant), a piano, coronet and

washboard.

Five years later, the jazz piece ¡°Tar Paper Stomp¡± by Joseph ¡°Wingy¡± Manone, from 1930, beget

¡°In the Mood¡¯s¡± signature musical phrase. It was released on the Champion label, credited to

Barbeque Joe and his Hot Dogs, Manone¡¯s name for his performing group.

Meanwhile, ¡°In the Mood¡¯s¡± catchy, repetitive bass line was first heard in Fletcher Henderson¡¯s

¡°Hot and Anxious¡± from 1931. Henderson¡¯s tune, as played by his popular orchestra, was

arranged by Fletcher¡¯s brother, Horace Henderson. ¡°Hot and Anxious¡± would also be recorded

by Don Redman and his outfit in 1932. The Redman version contains scattered bits of scat

singing, but no lyrics, per se. (Additionally: in 1938, Joe Marsala and his Chicagoans recorded

a song titled ¡°Hot String Beans.¡± It featured a young Buddy Rich on drums and it, too, bears

more than a passing resemblance to ¡°In the Mood.¡±)

Finally, Joe Garland, a sax player mainly, would sit down and take all these various strands and

weave them together into a work he titled ¡°There¡¯s a Rhythm in Harlem.¡± Garland and his band,

which included J.C. Higginbotham, Henry ¡°Red¡± Allen, and Edgar Hayes, recorded this

particular joint for Columbia in 1935. A little later, when Garland and Hayes broke away from

their earlier group to form another orchestra, Garland brought ¡°Rhythm¡± with him eventually

refining it and expanding it into the work we know today as ¡°In the Mood.¡± Garland copyrighted

the new tune in June 1938, the same year it was recorded by Edgar Hayes and his Orchestra for

the Decca label.

(An interesting, side-by-side audio comparison of ¡°Tar Paper Stomp,¡± ¡°Hot and Anxious,¡± and

¡°There¡¯s a Rhythm,¡± along with ¡°In the Mood,¡± can be found on Youtube at

.)

As pointed out by music historian Dennis Spragg, up until this time almost alll the fragments of

¡°In the Mood¡± had been composed and performed by African-American artists, thereby limiting

their radio airplay and record sales. Eventually, seeking wider exposure, Garland would begin to

pitch the memorable tune to various white bandleaders. Originally, he approached music

maestro Artie Shaw but the new work¡¯s length¡ªrunning about six minutes in total¡ªprevented

Shaw from being able to record it (three and half minutes was then the norm for 78rpm records).

Shaw did however occasionally play it on radio, though at a slightly slower tempo than Glenn

Miller would eventually reproduce it.

With Shaw largely taking a pass, Glenn Miller came to ¡°Mood¡± next. He assigned it to arranger

Eddie Durham who toyed with its arrangement until he arrived at a final, shortened but souped

up version. In his thorough biography of the Glenn Miller, author George Thomas Simon

deconstructs some of Miller and company¡¯s augmentation of what would become their signature

tune:

The Shaw version starts off with the familiar twelve-bar sax riff, played twice. Then

follows the next theme, which in the Miller version consists of two similar eight-bar

phrases repeated¡­. But in the Shaw version those sixteen bars comprise only the first

half of a full thirty-two-bar chorus, which, following those sixteen bars, goes into another

eight-bar theme as a release and returns to the original eight bars. What Glenn did was

cut out the eight-bar release and the final eight bars, reducing that thirty-two-bar chorus

to a series of simple sixteen-bar phrases.

Miller and company played their incarnation of ¡°In the Mood¡± for the first time on July 26, 1939

at a casino ballroom in Rochelle, New York. They would come to record it about a month later,

at the Victor Studios in New York City, on August 1, 1939. Miller¡¯s version utilized his

trademark trombone punctuating, echoing, the song¡¯s signature refrain. It would be a bouncy

combo¡ªperfect to accompany the jitterbug.

Miller¡¯s ¡°In the Mood¡± (RCA

B-10416-A), when

released in July of 1940, and no doubt aided by its high energy feel and slightly risqu¨¦ title,

became a success with audiences. It would go on to be broadcast on 62 occasions by Glenn

Miller and his Orchestra on their CBS program ¡°Chesterfield Moonlight Serenade,¡± on ¡°Coca

Cola Spotlight Bands,¡± and on remote broadcasts for NBC and Mutual.

¡°In the Mood¡± proved to have staying power even then. Soon after its debut, everywhere you

turned, Americans were awash in the ¡°Mood.¡± Though Miller never recorded the song with the

Razaf lyrics (¡°Who¡¯s the lovin¡¯ daddy with the beautiful eyes/What a pair o¡¯ lips, I¡¯d like to try

¡®em on for size.¡±), other bands did. The first was, interestingly, also for RCA Records. In

November 1939, that label released a version with singing provided by the Four King Sisters.

Meanwhile, songstress Paula Kelly sang ¡°In the Mood¡± accompanied by Al Donahue and his

Orchestra also that same year for a Vocalion (Columbia) release. By the end of 1940, there

would be six major label versions of ¡°In the Mood¡± somewhere in circulation.

After its inaugural release, Miller¡¯s ¡°Mood¡± would pop up again in the film ¡°Sun Valley

Serenade,¡± a Sonja Henie extravaganza released in 1941 in which Miller and his band are

featured. And the song would¡ªremarkably¡ªclimb back up various music charts in 1943.

Though the music was strong enough to stand on its own¡ªand it did¡ªthe occasional addition of

the song¡¯s lyrics only lengthened ¡°In the Mood¡¯s¡± life.

Big and brassy with a high-octane beat that prefigures rock and roll, ¡°In the Mood¡± is one of

those songs that manages to be both of the era yet oddly timeless. When listened to today, while

it sounds very big band, it also retains a stunning modernity. Certainly the song¡¯s universal

appeal is attested to by the variety of artists who have covered (and continue to cover) it, with or

without lyrics. Some of them: the Andrew Sisters, Brian Seltzer, Bette Midler (during Miss

M.¡¯s ¡°vintage¡± period which also saw her cover of ¡°Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy¡±), Benny

Goodman, Gene Krupa, Taco, Jimmy C. Newman (a Cajun/country mix), Ernie Fields (whose

1959 version peaked at #4 on the charts), and Roy Conniff, not to mention every latter-day big

band orchestra ever to strap on some suits and a sax. Country song parodist Ray Stevens (posing

as The Henhouse Five Plus Two) had a hit with ¡°In the Mood¡± when he recorded a group of

¡°chickens¡± who ¡°clucked¡± their way through its bars in 1977. Also known as ¡°The Cluck-Cluck

Version,¡± Steven¡¯s endeavor reached number 40 on the Billboard charts in February of that year.

Along with often being on the charts, ¡°In the Mood¡± has often been heard in the movies too.

Besides ¡°Sun Valley¡± and beside figuring prominently¡ªand not surprisingly¡ªin the film ¡°The

Glenn Miller Story¡± starring Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson from 1954, ¡°In the Mood¡± has

also been worked into a variety of other big screen and small screen endeavors. For a time, the

selection seemed to be the go-to tune for any movie or TV show wanting to invoke the 1940s-which has, at times, brought it close to clich¨¦. To whit: ¡°In the Mood¡± can be heard in Woody

Allen¡¯s ¡°Radio Days¡± as well as in ¡°Hope and Glory¡±; ¡°The Philadelphia Experiment¡±; ¡°Wild at

Heart¡±; ¡°The Radioland Murders¡±; ¡°Shining Through¡±; ¡°The Black Dahlia¡±; ¡°1941¡±; ¡°The Way

We Were¡± and even in such surprising places as ¡°90210,¡± ¡°Dr. Who,¡± ¡°The Simpsons,¡± and

¡°Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.¡± Obviously as well it was heard throughout the

film ¡°In the Mood,¡± the slightly enhanced story of infamous ¡°Woo-Woo Kid¡± Sonny Wisecarver,

which starred a young Patrick Dempsey.

If ¡°In the Mood¡± made Miller hugely popular¡ªto the point where he and his band almost got

sick of playing it--it did not make him rich. Still bound by an old ¡°no-royalties¡± clause in his

recording contract, Miller earned only $175 for his often-resurrected rendition. Years later,

however, his estate was able to wrangle a revised royalty agreement, allowing Miller¡¯s heirs to

reap some of the song¡¯s ample proceeds.

Unfortunately, Miller¡¯s career was an abbreviated one. An active member of the war effort

during World War II, Miller was flying from England to France to do a show for servicemen in

December of 1944 when his plane disappeared over the English Channel. His body has never

been recovered. In 1945, Miller was posthumously awarded a bronze star for his service to his

country.

Despite a tragically short life, Miller¡¯s legacy is a cache of popular and timeless tunes. They

include: ¡°Chattanooga Choo Choo,¡± ¡°Tuxedo Junction,¡± ¡°Moonlight Serenade¡± and

¡°Pennsylvania 6-500.¡± And, of course, ¡°In the Mood,¡± a song which has proved to be as

enduring as it is evocative.

Cary O¡¯Dell is with the motion picture, broadcast and recorded sound division of the Library of

Congress. He is the author of the books ¡°June Cleaver Was a Feminist!¡± (2014) and ¡°Women

Pioneers in Television¡± (1997). He also served as assistant editor of ¡°The Concise

Encyclopedia of American Radio¡± (2009) and ¡°The Biographical Encyclopedia of American

Radio¡± (2010).

Note: I am grateful to both Dennis Spragg, of the Glenn Miller Trust, and Alan Cass, of the

Glenn Miller Archive at the University of Colorado, for their invaluable assistance with this

essay.

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